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Rob Bradley again trying to change Florida's juvenile sentencing laws

TALLAHASSEE | After a stinging defeat last year on the floor of the Senate, Rob Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican, has again filed legislation to align Florida’s juvenile-sentencing laws with recent United States Supreme Court rulings.

In 2010, the Supreme Court said it’s unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile to life in prison without the possibility of parole, though it allowed exceptions for juveniles convicted of murder.

Ever since, lawmakers have failed to pass legislation changing Florida’s juvenile sentencing laws to comply with those opinions. There are 265 inmates in custody of the Department of Corrections that were given life sentences as juveniles.

Additionally, without a tweak to state law, courts across the state have been left to interpret the Supreme Court’s decisions differently.

During the 2013 legislative session, Bradley, a private attorney, ushered a proposed legislative fix through three committee stops, but halted his own bill on the Senate floor after opponents tacked on an amendment he opposed.

Bradley’s bill would have required a judge to consider factors like background and ability for rehabilitation during a mandatory hearing before sentencing a juvenile convicted of murder to life in prison. The Supreme Court said murderers under 18 could be convicted to life in prison, but individual factors had to be considered.

Bradley’s bill also capped at 50 years the sentence a judge could give a juvenile who did not commit murder.

The amendment, offered by state Sen. Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, would have allowed a parole hearing every 25 years for juveniles given life sentences for non-fatal crimes and for those who committed murder.

“Why not give that judge the ability to review a case after 25 years?” Garcia asked during April floor debate.

This year, Bradley’s legislation offers parole hearings after 25 years for juveniles convicted of non-fatal crimes, and caps sentences for those offenders at 35 years. It does not offer hearings for juveniles convicted of homicide.

“The bill I filed still does not offer hearings to murderers,” Bradley said.

Bradley, who chairs the Senate committee that writes the court’s budget, said this year’s version was “meant to address some of the concerns that I heard from fellow senators last year.”